When we were growing up The Holocaust hung as a mark of shame over Europe and with the declaration of the state of Israel a new dawn had broken.
Most survivors didn’t go home as there was nothing left in their former homes: no family , no house and no compensation . They sought new beginnings in countries that would open their doors and for many a whole new freedom previously denied to Jews for centuries was found in Israel, where not only was the land historically Jewish, the culture, the food, even the days of the week were wholly and holy Jewish. They knew it would be tough but they were prepared to live firstly in tents, then kibbutzim and moshavim and be the midwives to the new state they were birthing .
I don’t think anyone thought that 78 years later, that state would be fighting for its very survival, having suffered an unprecedented massacre on its own territory, and once again the Europeans were not looking like friends, but choosing instead to support murderous sects like Hamas, and condemn all efforts that Israel made to defend herself.
Today, in New York, the new Mayor is openly anti Israel . That’s a huge problem for the over 1.3 million Jews who live there. As Obama left office he sent $1.7 billion to the Iranians, who have never made a secret of their desire to annihilate the Jewish State.
Those who settled in the UK hoped the lessons of racism were learnt, and for many decades Never Again felt real. Books were written on the circumstances that allowed a cultured and enlightened country like Germany to fall so quickly to Nazism.
So how did we arrive to today in London, probably the most multi cultural city in the world, where the Jewish children now learn behind high fences with security at the door ?
On the way to Synagogues the streets are now full of CST to protect those carrying books, not guns, wanting to go to pray communally. Hate marches continue and the police come out in their thousands to protect those chanting “From the River to the Sea” and “Globalise the Intifada”. Neither incitement to hatred and murder is banned in the UK as it all depends on context! Those chanting and marching are afforded much more protection than Jewish neighbourhoods, schools or synagogues. The government has today pledged £25 million for Jewish community security, but the evil genie is out the bottle and money alone cannot put it back.
The posters of those poor innocent souls taken hostage by the savage Hamas were routinely defaced and torn down and we now see swastikas in Jewish areas. All this is perfectly legal and has become the “norm”.
This is how it began in the 1930’s, foul and threatening tropes against Jewish people became the “norm”. Once you normalise anti-semitism, anything is possible and acceptable. When the police cannot find a charge to file against those driving through Jewish areas calling for the rapes of Jews, the future looks uncertain and scary.
What’s going on, when you have Zack Polanski, the leader of the Greens asking on mainstream television’ if the Jews really feel unsafe or is it just the perception of fear ‘. Did the two men in Golders Green brutally stabbed in the street, really feel the fear as the knife went in or was it just the perception of fear ?
The Met’s chief of Police Mark Rowley, who has done nothing to prevent attacks like this, but in fact has enabled and facilitated the atmosphere where Jews being stabbed in broad daylight in London, and gunned down as happened in Manchester, made these attacks inevitable. The perpetrator of the attack was known for violent behaviour,, was on a terrorist watch list, but was walking the streets anyway.
A further sign of the deep rot that is setting into the UK is todays sharing of on line comments by the leader of the Green Party that the police who apprehended the terrorist were too rough on him. Every time Zack Polanski opens his mouth you can feel the danger. We may have kicked Jeremy Corbyn into the long grass but more snakes are slithering through.
The Police Chief at least pulled him up on his “casual disregard” for the reality of policing and called his remarks” inaccurate and misinformed” and would have a “chilling effect” on the officers trying to do their jobs.
The genocide lie spread by the BBC and never clearly retracted, despite even the UN finding no evidence of a genocide in Gaza, has done untold damage to the standing of Israel in the eyes of the world and put all Jews in danger.
The IRGC has still not been proscribed as a terrorist group in the UK. Radical Islamist preachers still spew hate from their pulpits unchallenged. The hate marches continue .
Keir Starmer who is now nicknamed “Jew Harmer” was heckled in Temple Fortune yesterday, as visited the Hatzola headquarters and chose to stay in a back room rather than address the people . There were more police than people and while their disappointment and shock was more sharply felt than their anger, it was representative of a community clearly let down by its government and the two-tier policing that is commonplace now in the UK.
Wes Streeting spoke well today, so we must hope that those with a good conscience and courage now take positive steps to stop the events that encourage incitement and lead those who have been radicalised and poisoned to manifest their thoughts into murderous actions.
If the atmosphere doesn’t change quickly then the Jewish future in the UK is no longer guaranteed and the wars that constantly threaten Israel will present less of a threat than standing at bus stops in London looking Jewish.
In Israel you have the IDF and a police force that will constantly want to protect you. The Doctors and Nurses both Jews and Arabs will always do their best to heal you regardless of religion, race or gender.
In the UK now no one knows who to trust and the situation is more than uncomfortable.